Our View: Gathering STEAM

Ever since Sputnik circled the globe back in 1957, the United States has been relentlessly committed to reclaiming the top global educational positions in math and science.

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southcoasttoday.com

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Posted Nov. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Nov. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Ever since Sputnik circled the globe back in 1957, the United States has been relentlessly committed to reclaiming the top global educational positions in math and science.

Unfortunately, this nation has continued to slip further and further from that goal in the ensuing decades, even as it rolled out plan after plan in a vain attempt to rejuvenate its educational vigor. The latest effort, branded with the acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) has been academia's mantra for the past few years. The movement has found some early success, despite the fact that it leaves out one vital component: innovation.

Recognizing this oversight, two state representatives, Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, and Kay Khan, D-Newton, are co-sponsoring a bill that would create a commission to investigate whether to integrate the arts into the STEM framework, rebranding it as STEAM. If successful, the effort would undo a great wrong that has continued to grow as standardized testing has increased its stranglehold on curriculum development throughout the public schools.

Few would argue with the notion that it is difficult to measure a student's level of creativity. Art is, by its very nature, subjective; that which appeals to one person may not appeal to another. The world's best watercolor landscape may not capture the fancy of someone for whom dance is the greatest form of personal expression.

As a result, educational experts have often found themselves focusing on skills and knowledge that can be measured through objective testing. The problem here, of course, is that objectivity is valuable only up to a point; it merely reflects that a student can learn certain information and ways of doing something and then parrot back what he or she has learned when called upon to do so. In short, it is regurgitation rather than a demonstration of critical thinking.

Yes, creativity is so much more difficult to measure, but that should not imply it is somehow of correspondingly less value. Quite the contrary; all the pre-existing knowledge in the world will do mankind little good without the ability to look at that same information in a new and innovative manner. Many of our most successful visionaries, such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, were without question technically competent, but they could also envision a different world where their knowledge could be applied in exciting and new ways. This unique ability netted each of them billions of dollars, and remade the world we live in.

In schools, this type of excitement might manifest itself as cross-curricular activities designed to link theory and knowledge with expression. Instead of considering arts-related classes as the poor cousins of academics, they would instead be given their rightful place at the table as yet another manner of expression, no more or less valuable.

State lawmakers should move the idea of STEAM from theory to practice as soon as possible. At issue is nothing short of the creative skills of our young people and the economic health of our nation.